1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an information management apparatus dealing with waste in a recycling system which processes waste for recycling, and particularly to a information management apparatus dealing with waste suitable for use in a recycling system which collects discarded home electric appliances and processes them for recycling. The invention also relates to a waste generation quantity prediction apparatus and a waste recycling plan supporting apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a result of the prevalence of home electric appliances, discarded home electric appliances are increasing drastically and processing of these objects is becoming a social problem. Discarded home electric appliances of end users (consumers) are collected by the local governing bodies, home electric appliance dealers and waste processing agents, and, after being transported to the recycling facility, these objects are processed for recycling or abandonment. It is expected that the recycling system for reclaiming discarded home electric appliances will become more important in the future.
For a recycling system for reclaiming discarded home electric appliances, it is required to feed waste stably, and accordingly the information management for waste collected from end users becomes important. There are very few reports concerning the information management dealing with waste.
Among publications dealing with the information management of waste, Japanese patent publication JP-A-60-12403 describes a waste collection management system. This system is intended to collect garbage efficiently through the provision of a means of monitoring the quantity of garbage stacked in each of depositories within a collection area.
Japanese patent publications JP-A-61-80354 and JP-A-59-85568, as other publications dealing with information management, describe systems for providing the information of used car transaction. These transaction information systems include a central computer and terminals units installed in dealer shops in on-line connection to the central computer, and are designed to register intended transaction conditions of sellers and buyers of used cars through the terminal units to the central computer so as to provide the transaction information for both parties through the search operation.
In the recycling system, it is important to feed certain kinds of discarded home electric appliances stably to the recycling facility so as to meet the demand of recycling products. However, there is no means of information management for dealing with the matter of what kind of and what amount of discarded home electric appliances should be collected from which waste depository. Therefore, the kind and quantity of discarded home electric appliances to be fed to the recycling facility can at most be adjusted within the range of capacity of the stockyard where collected discarded home electric appliances are stored. There is no means of assessment of the quantity of waste generated in the future, and therefore it is not possible to have a long-term prospect of waste supply to the recycling system.
The foregoing publications concerning the handling of waste merely disclose the information management for carrying out the efficient collection of garbage stacked in multiple depositories in a collection area, and they are not designed to determine the kind and quantity of waste to be collected.
The above-mentioned used car transaction information system is not designed to determine the type and quantity of used cars to be collected.